Police investigating, but Fire Department finding does not mean blaze was arson

CaptionHot spot

Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune

A demolition company takes down a doorway and part of a wall on a Bridgeport warehouse as flames leap out. The warehouse was gutted by a massive extra-alarm blaze last week and is being torn down, but smoldering hot spots in the rubble remain.

A demolition company takes down a doorway and part of a wall on a Bridgeport warehouse as flames leap out. The warehouse was gutted by a massive extra-alarm blaze last week and is being torn down, but smoldering hot spots in the rubble remain. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

Small flames are rekindled on Sunday morning as demolition crews knock down the warehouse building at 3757 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago, which was the scene of a 5-11 alarm fire earlier in the week.

Small flames are rekindled on Sunday morning as demolition crews knock down the warehouse building at 3757 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago, which was the scene of a 5-11 alarm fire earlier in the week. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Firefighters standing by a wrecking ball watch over the building at 3757 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago where small flames are rekindled on Sunday, as demolition crews knock down the warehouse building after it was destroyed by fire.

Firefighters standing by a wrecking ball watch over the building at 3757 S. Ashland Ave. in Chicago where small flames are rekindled on Sunday, as demolition crews knock down the warehouse building after it was destroyed by fire. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Investigators today determined the blaze that gutted a nearly 100-year-old Bridgeport warehouse began when someone started a fire -- but while police are investigating, the determination does not mean the fire was an arson.

“The Office of Fire Investigation has determined the cause of the 5-11 Fire on Ashland to be open flame ignition of available combustibles,’’ said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

“In layman’s terms, that means something that was burning such as a flame or match got near something that would burn,’’ Langford said.

Langford said the building had no gas or electric service and no one was known to be living there. But the night of the blaze, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that in the past, firefighters had been called to the warehouse for small fires caused when squatters lit fires to stay warm.

The matter has been forwarded to the Chicago Police Bomb and Arson unit to determine if the fire involved foul play, Langford and police said.

This morning, a private wrecking company hired by the owners of the building began its demolition, Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Meg Ahlheim said. Ladder trucks and other fire equipment remained on the scene, pouring water on hot spots as they sprang up, she said.

Tuesday night, a Fire Department battalion chief spotted smoke from the blaze as he drove past around 9 p.m. A third of the department's on-duty personnel were called to fight the fire, fed by century-old support timbers. Crews have remained there since, dousing flames from the smouldering debris.

The owner of the building, North Development Inc. of Elmhurst, applied for the demolition permit, citing the emergency nature of the work to forego the normal 10-day waiting period, according to Buildings Department spokeswoman Susan Massel.

Such exemptions are allowed when a building has become structurally unsound, she said. The work is being done by Ground Crew Inc. of Naperville.

Records show the owner of the building is 3737 Ashland LLC, which is controlled by North Development. North Development’s president, Calvin Boender, is in federal prison for bribing former 29th Ward Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers.

City officials had sued the owners of the warehouse in 2011 for leaving the vacant building open and dangerous, seeking to demolish it. But the owners registered it as a vacant building and corrected code violations.

Chicago demolition crews are hard at work Friday bringing down a warehouse where a massive fire took place earlier this week. The fire has rekindled a couple times, including this morning. (Source: WGN - Chicago)